US lunar mission postponed to May or summer
During the Artemis-1 mission, the Americans plan to send an unmanned Orion spacecraft to fly around the Moon on a SLS rocket under development. This was planned to take place in April, but NASA says that this is not possible. In addition, it is unlikely that it will be launched in May.
“We continue to assess the launch window in May, but we recognize that there is a lot of work that needs to be done to implement these plans,” said Tom Whitmaier, a NASA spokesperson, during an online briefing.
Among other things, it will be necessary to evaluate the future pre-launch rehearsal with refueling. The rehearsal will take place on March 17 at Pad 39B at the Kennedy Space Center in Florida, the same launch site. The way to the site from the assembly building, where the missile was attached to the ship, will take about 12 hours.
According to agency representatives, the missile and the ship will be held at the site for about a month, and the tests will take about two weeks. The SLS will then be returned to the assembly building for analysis of the test results.
The May launch window will run from 7 to 21. To send the ship on the departure path to the Moon, it is necessary to wait for the moment when the Earth satellite is in the correct position. If the rocket is not ready in May, the following windows open from June 6-16 and June 29 – July 12.
The SLS is a very heavy rocket that relies on elements from the Space Shuttle: its engines, tank and boosters. Initially, it was supposed to be ready by 2019, but these dates have been changed several times.
